"Sharon Green - Diana Santee 2 - Gateway To Xanadu" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Sharon)

"If you don't mind, I'd like to hear what those requests are before I agree to them," I said, putting my fist
on my hip. "I'm not as silly as some people, who commit themselves before they know what they're
committing themselves to."

"Don't rub it in!" he growled, looking annoyed, but then he grinned and laughed softly: He'd been so
eager to do me a favor that he hadn't first asked what favor I had in mind, a silliness he'd be regretting
for some time to come. When you make a habit of keeping your word, you really should take a good
look around before giving it.

"Okay, okay, so I deserve to have it rubbed in," he conceded, one broad hand ruefully rubbing the back
of his neck. "That doesn't mean I also deserve to be haunted by this thing for the rest of my life. I'd like
to know just how deep a pit I dug for Valdon-and how good his chances are of climbing out again all in
one piece. He's one of the best field agents I've ever had, but I don't know if he's good enough to survive
at the level you seem to operate on. I still don't understand how you survive."

"That's easy," I told him with a wave of my hand. "I have the worst luck you've ever seen, always
picking the wrong side to bet on. Any time I'm about to get a really hairy assignment, I make sure to bet
someone that I'll finally get it so I don't. Works every time."

I grinned, but the good commander wasn't in the mood for a laugh. The look in his dark eyes hardened
as he began straightening himself in annoyance, so I waved my hand at him again.

"Come on, Dameron, let's be intelligent about this," I coaxed, letting some of the tiredness I felt come
into my voice. "I worked a long time at my job to get good enough to qualify for hyper-A assignments;
you can't really believe they'll let Val share them just because he's giant size and has all those pretty
muscles. He'll have to earn the right to put his neck on the line just like the rest of us, and by then it will
probably be time for him to come home. Chances are you'll have less cause to worry about him than you
would if you sent him back down to Tildor."

"But-you two are supposed to be partners," he protested, still seeming upset. "If you get one of those
assignments then he'll get it, or at least he'll decide he has it. He won't sit back and let you do it all
yourself, and you're crazy if you think he will. "

"Are you under the impression that I don't know what he's like?" I asked, a bit belligerently. "Have you
forgotten all the time we spent together down on Tildor? When I want Val out of the way I'll have him
out of the way, whether it makes him happy or not. On Tildor he had all of the advantages, but in the
Federation we'll be on my stamping grounds. I'm even willing to bet on it."

"I thought you always backed the losing side," he retorted, but a shadow of his old humor was back,
along with a fading of some of the worry. "I don't feel as much confidence as you seem to, girl, but for

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some reason I also don't feel as bad as I did. You're sure your people won't let him have any of these-
hyper-A assignments?"

"Positive," I answered, grinning briefly at the way Dameron pronounced 'hyper-A'. We were speaking
his base language, and there was no one-to-one translation for the phrase. "Hyper-A is short for 'high